Blood Sport
by Weirdlet
Summary: Three young hunters encounter the Coliseum, and one is bolder than the rest . . .


Blood Sport

I own nothing.Tell me what you think!

Day broke, and the citizens of Rome knew it was going to be another boiling, harshly sunny day.The summer had been more overheated than usual, and the people sought relief in what ways they could.Many flocked to the blood sports in the Colliseum, staying in the more shaded higher seats where the lower classes watched.

The giant arena housed perhaps fifty thousand people in the heat of this day, all having paid their money to see varying types of fighters and beasts compete to live and perhaps win their freedom, if they survived long enough.But, unknown to the other spectators, three had not paid for their entry, and stood watching the spectacle with enthrallment as they absorbed the heat of the day, adding it to their own strength.

Krehrr(click), Hrehhhruh, and Gr-r-rhurrrrh stood at the top walls of the great circular building, cloaked to a spectrum of light invisible to themselves, but visible, or not visible, as the case was, to prey.The three hunters watched the roaring crowd and the tiny fighters below, trying to make out exactly what happened.

The exploring youths had set out to try and learn a bit about this world before actually hunting its native beasts, and had stumbled upon this incredible construction of stone, primitive and yet somehow far greater than anything built by the City-Dwellers on their own world.Perhaps the dominant creatures here were able to build more magnificently because their world had more solid ground and actual stone, unlike home, where the swamps, home to warriors and hunters, covered a third of the surface.

They watched from the top edge, Gr-r-rhurrrrh resting her bottom jaw on her fist as she tried to make out what the prey-beasts, the _huurrrehhhhhra_, were doing.The other two were excited by this discovery, and the pair of males were bitterly disappointed that they could barely make out what was going on.There might have been a better vantage point, but Gr-r-rhurrrrh was cautious, knowing that the rules were that they try to _avoid_ letting the secret of their existence become known to the intelligent prey.Krehrr(click) and Hrehhhruh, however, were quickly losing their prudence in their curiosity.

Krehrr(click), self-appointed leader of the group, squinted to try and see what the _huurrrehhhhhra_ were up to at the center of the ring.It _seemed_ as though they were attacking each other, and whatever was going on was enough to have the crowd below them roaring and applauding.He wanted a better view, and he'd seen tunnels around the place.

"Come on," he growled low to Gr-r-rhrurrrrh and Hrehhhruh."I'm going to get a better view, and whether you join me or not, I don't care," he addressed to Gr-r-rhrurrrrh, who had said before they shouldn't get closer to such a crowd.

Hrehhhruh followed the other male silently, and Gr-r-rhrurrrrh knew she had to keep them out of trouble.The young hunters slipped silently along the outside of the building, trying to stay in what would be shadowed patches to the crowded streets below.

The hunters crept along within the interior of the huge arena, where it was cool and the sun didn't reach.They stayed in the less traveled passages in the labyrinth beneath the stadium, avoiding the armored _huurrrehhhhhra_ that swarmed there.Gr-r-rhrurrrrh was seething.Krehrr(click) was leading them where it was more and more likely they would be seen by prey that they couldn't kill all of.A challenge was one thing, but there were _hundreds_ of _huurrrehhhhhra_ around here and they were supposed to try and avoid letting them know of the existence of warriors!Half the fun of the hunt was the fear of the unknown that had the prey unpredictable and on edge, and that wouldn't last long if survivors became common among those who sighted hunters!

She would have growled, but they were in danger enough of discovery.Krehrr(click) was reckless, and dragging the rest of them into it.She'd be surprised if he lived to breed even once.Hrehhhruh was silent as he followed the others.

Minutes passed, and the three young hunters threaded their way through the tunnels, avoiding the _huurrrehhhhhra_ warriors that wandered through there, until at last Krehrr(click) had led them to a pair of gates guarded by _huurrrehhhhhra_ and in front of a tunnel crowded with their warriors.

A question ran through Gr-r-rhrurrrrh's mind that she did not dare voice here, even with the assault of sound from the _huurrrehhhhhra_ that might have drowned out the words._Why are all these warriors here, waiting to fight in front of a crowd?_

The conclusion came to her as she waited with the other two; this must be some sort of contest the _huurrrehhhhhra_ engaged in to find out who was strongest, best for breeding; a bit like a formal version of the brawls in the hot season at home before breeding-season.

The crowd outside had quieted a little, and at some order unheard by them, a pair of gladiators broke away from the group well back in the tunnel the hunters were at the edge of.The pair went through the gates opened by the guards, and in the dazzle of sunlight that followed no one saw three figures of glassy translucency slip quickly through the opening.

Gr-r-rhrurrrrh was incensed but a little thrilled.After all, wasn't risk part of hunt, of life?But what Krehrr(click) was doing was foolish and dangerous to them all, and she _would_ get back at him when this was over.In the meanwhile, there was an excellent view from here.

They were in a cool spot that must have been shadowed to the thousands of _huurrrehhhhhra_ around them, and they stayed close to the wall, watching the fighters close up.Several pairs in varying types of armor and armed with differently shaped blades and weapons were fighting to the death, sometimes coming dangerously close to where the three hunters hid, spattering them with blood. 

Hrehhhruh, who had been silently following the other two, had an idea.But he waited to put it into motion; _huurrrehhhhhra_ might be, by other warriors' definitions, inferior animals, but it was still a breach of manners to interfere in any other's fight according to him.

Finally the pairs had all finished off their opponents, and stood for a moment, and that moment was all the time the young hunter needed.

As Hrehhhruh stepped out into the arena uncloaked, Gr-r-rhrurrrrh tried to grab hold of his neck and drag him back but Krehrrr(click) restrained her from stepping out of the shadows; it was difficult, as she outweighed him and was a foot taller.She growled.

"That air-between-the-ears, frost-brained, reckless-!" and then she spat out a name for Hrehhhruh that thankfully had no translation.

The crowd watched in surprise as a new fighter approached from the shadows, a _huge_ giant in a metal mask, with long, solid looking braids ringed with bone, and a mottled hide that must have come from skillful dyes or tattoos.The giant was armored as no other gladiator before, with only greaves and wrist-guards, and an odd shoulder piece that was bulky and had a strange tube on the top.

The new fighter, muscled like a horse, wore an odd netting over his strangely colored hide, with skulls and bones of small creatures strung around his neck.He stood before the gladiators, and silently reached up and undid catches at his shoulder, removing the bulky shoulder piece and tossing it back into the shadows.He did not face the Emperor and salute, but then the Emperor wasn't attending today so there was no point.

He extended his arms, and with a flick of his right wrist extended two sharp, serrated blades with a ringing metallic tone.

The gladiators thought to themselves for a moment. This was definitely a change in plans.No one had told them about this surprise gladiator, but then, it probably was to add to the excitement.So the fighters, most slaves and the occasional volunteer, resigned themselves to this new challenge.

The crowd spoke amongst themselves, wondering over this mystery challenger.

"He looks very fierce, in that mask and bones!"

"What land produces such men?!"

"Shut it, I'm trying to watch!"

The masked and braided giant allowed the original gladiators to move first.They advanced, swinging their weapons threateningly at the challenger who stood a foot and a half taller than the biggest of them.The giant, eerily faceless in his metal mask, allowed them to advance further, until finally they all stood within easy distance of striking him.And then he charged the one before him.

The greenish and yellow mottled giant smashed the first gladiator not to the ground, but into flight.As the man landed the giant raced until he was again before the gladiator, who picked himself up and rushed the giant, gladius aimed toward his guts.The giant stepped aside at the last second and _pounced_, the wrist-blades flashing as the man lost his throat all the way back to the spine.

In the meanwhile, the other gladiators had caught up with the giant, and the man armed with net and trident attempted to entangle him.He dodged nimbly, ducking a spearing as he evaded capture.

The net-man, the retiarius, flung his weighted net again and again at the giant, always missing the lithe fighter by inches as he danced to the side and stood to let him try again.Behind the giant, a man wielding a mace swung the weapon as a distraction, slicing the giant across the shoulder with the spiked ball and attracting his attention as the net settled over him, binding and tripping.

The giant gave a roar the like of which had never been heard, more like an enraged animal than a wounded man, and slashed the nets with his twin blades.The retiarius tried to spear the giant while he was still entangled, but only succeeded in angering him.The giant leapt to his feet, the shreds of the net falling from about his shoulders as he grabbed the trident from the retiarius, turned it, and threw the net-man over his shoulder with the three-pronged spear in his abdomen.In the chaos, no one noticed the masked giant bleeding a brilliant, glowing green from the shallow slice on his shoulder.

The other gladiators approached, and one armed with only a gladius and a large shield, a secutor, ran forward and slashed at the giant's chest, causing him to step back suddenly as the secutor kept attacking.

The giant bellowed and struck the man's shield, breaking the strong wood like a hammer through cheap pottery.He followed that with a backhanded blow to the secutor's face, and the crack was heard well past the first rows of spectators.The man dropped like a stone, his head at a strange angle.

Ignoring the sharp blades the other gladiators held, the giant charged forward, slashing and punching and leading the fighters in a different direction, where he proceeded to disarm and wrestle with them, tossing them to the ground and leaving them to get up again.But while the gladiators lay trying to regain their feet, the masked, mottled giant went to the corpses of the three men he'd killed.

To the crowd's shock, he beheaded and tore out the spines of his fallen foes, leaving the gory prizes neatly in the center of the ring as his shaken but still warlike opponents rushed at him like charging bulls.

The crowd was treated to a blood bath the likes of which they had never seen, the masked and braided giant at times smashing into the other gladiators recklessly, at others dancing and dodging and drawing the fighters away from the group to be creatively killed.And always, he took the heads and spines.In the cheering, one noticed something odd.

"The giant's bleeding green!"

His neighbor answered him.

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, this is the best fight I've ever seen."

The giant had picked up a gladius from a fallen fighter; the short sword looked like an over-large dagger in his hand; and was engaged in teasing the man with the mace into attacking him.The smaller man took the bait and lunged, only to be avoided with a cat-like leap.

The giant looked as though it were figuring out how to use the gladius for the first time, and learned quickly.The mace-wielder was lured into trying to land a blow several times, and the giant drew out the fight, deliberately missing easy decapitations, until he tired of playing and slew.But he did not escape unscathed; the mace-wielder had crashed the spiked ball into the giant's arm, leaving a series of green-glowing marks that caused him to once more roar like a storm's fury.

Finally only one gladiator remained against the unexpected challenger.The giant was on one side of the arena, cutting the spine from the last of his opponents, while the last standing fighter waited, considering how to approach.

The giant, sun gleaming off his strange, mottled skin, walked calmly to the center of the Colliseum.He waited there, breathing deeply.Some of the closest spectators could hear the rushing noise of the giant's lungs, like a blowing horse in its volume, and they again marveled at the size of the challenger that had added such excitement to the games.

The last gladiator approached the center of the arena, an axe in his hands.Unlike the others, he stood to let the giant come to him, and the fight halted for several moments as they both observed each other.

The giant's face was unseen, hidden behind his flat, intimidating mask; he turned his head to the side in an expression of curiosity or confusion, and approached the axe-wielder.The man did not attempt to lunge and immediately attack as had the others; forcing the giant to make the first move.

The axe struck sparks of the giant's metal wrist-guards as its wielder struck aside the intended blow.The giant snarled and slashed again at the gladiator's face, leaving a shallow red streak down his chest where the blades had scored.The gladiator struck at the giant's side landing a partial strike, the edge of the axe coming away glowing green.

The giant quickly learned to try and block the axe-strikes with the impossibly strong metal of his limited armoring.The axe-wielder also evaded the worst of the giant's wrist blades, but they both wounded each other, never enough to end the fight but sufficient to remind them to keep an eye on one another.The giant still held the gladius he'd taken from beside a fallen fighter and used it, able to reach beyond the range his wrist-blades had previously afforded him.

The gladiator and the giant continued, evenly matched, until in an attempt to avoid an axe in his belly the giant twisted to the side too far and fell to the sand.He twisted again to avoid the blade aimed at his neck, and as the crowd held its breath, the axe came down in the middle of the broad forehead of the mask.

The clanging sound resounded, but the expected rush of blood on the sands of the Coliseum never came.The giant quickly but awkwardly got to his feet, touching the linear scratch above and between his eyes.No one could believe his armor could have stood up to that.

With a curse, the axe-wielder swiftly aimed a blow below his ribs not with the blade but with the handle.And it struck.

The giant did not groan, wheeze, or roar, but silently held his stomach, doubled over.The gladiator aimed a final strike, but as the axe fell the giant blocked it with his armored wrist and slashed at the smaller fighter with the double-blades at his right hand.And thus it began again.Snarling like a great cat, the masked giant backhanded the axe-wielder and while the smaller man recovered, pounced and knocked the axe away.

The gladiator struggled under the giant's weight, also trying to evade the serrated blades aimed at his face.Another hard strike to where the giant's ribs ended, this time a desperate kick instead of an axe-handle, allowed a momentary escape.

The giant could be heard breathing harshly, struggling upright while the gladiator moved away to retrieve his axe.Like a green and yellow lightning strike, he bulled into the axe-wielder, knocking aside the axe and proceeding to drive the man with thunderous blows of his fists.The giant ignored the blades available to him in favor of destroying his opponent by hand.

After having driven the axe-wielder this way and that, the giant stood for a moment, allowing the last gladiator to move away for some distance.He looked to be preparing to rush the beaten fighter for a final kill, when the gladiator lifted his hand, two fingers upright.He was conquered, and asking to be spared.

Hrehhhruh looked down at the _huurrrehhhhhra_ that had been the most challenging, the one who had come closest to beating him.The crowd was roaring something, he didn't understand the word, but he watched the _huurrrehhhhhra_ with its hand raised in an unfamiliar gesture.

He might not have known exactly what the fighter's gesture meant, but Hrehhhruh had grown up watching the fights every breeding season and the duels the rest of the time; he knew very well what a submission signal was.The _huurrrehhhhhra_ admitted defeat.Hrehhhruh was a little confused; older warriors told him this prey species had no honor, and were often too stubborn to know they were already dead meat.He approached the kneeling _huurrrehhhhhra_ warrior, considering.If this were a duel over honor with a fellow hunter, he would have the right to allow his opponent to live only if the offense given warranted such humiliation.But with this creature, it wasn't so clear-cut.

The crowd continued to roar its chant of one word, and the youthful hunter knew it must have something to do with his fight.The _huurrrehhhhhra_ seemed resigned to whatever the audience was saying, and tilted its head back.

Hrehhhruh stepped forward, his decision made.

The giant stepped forward amid the cries of "Kill!", the gladius in his hand.He touched the blade to the defeated axe-wielder's throat, drew back-

And thrust the gladius into his belt.With a ringing sound, the wrist-blades retracted, and the giant turned his back on the gladiator.

The giant withdrew from the axe-wielder as the noise from the crowd filled the air, gathering the heads and spines he had torn from the other gladiators.Slowly, he walked toward the place he had come from, seeming to melt away and disappear into the shadows.

Their hunting-partner returned, the relieved pair greeted him the way they felt he should be greeted.

Krehrr(click) cuffed him hard, and Gr-r-rhrurrrrh grabbed him around the neck. 

"You- . . . you- . . ."

"Do you have any idea how much trouble you just got us into?"

They did not dare say any more, the risk of discovery was too great even with the noise of the crowd drowning out the growling language.Eventually an opportunity arose for them to slip into the dark tunnels of the stadium, and the three young hunters found themselves in a deserted passageway.

Still cloaked, the three continued where they had left off.

"We were exploring before hunting, remember?"

"You just brazenly revealed yourself to thousands of prey-beasts!How did you get the gall, the stupidity-"

"The bravery . . ."

"Don't interrupt me.That was the most idiotic move I have ever heard of!Your teachers, your clan elders, what would they say?!"

Hrehhhruh held up the six skulls he had claimed.

"Amusing indeed.Where was the skill in taking them completely aware, allowing them to surround you?"

"I say it was more sporting.Skill in sneaking up on prey unaware is one thing, but skill in actual, honest combat is another.Besides, I think I've just gained some notoriety among them."

"What-_Huurrrehhhhhra_ are prey beasts!A reputation among them means nothing!"

"Still, it means something to me."

Gr-r-rhrurrrrh's opinion of this was evidenced by the fist around his throat and the fist she was trying to keep herself from bruising against his mask.It was very fortunate for Hrehhhruh that she couldn't see the grin behind his mask, or she might not have kept from harming him.

She finally convinced herself not to hurt the smaller male, telling herself it really wasn't fair because he was a smaller male and he'd just fought seven and killed six.Snarling in disgust, she convinced Krehrr(click) with a look to lead them out of the labyrinthine passages.

On the way back to the ship, they both told Hrehhhruh off for his recklessness.Krehrr(click) agreed with Gr-r-rhrurrrrh that while his own actions to get a better view had been risky, it had been far less foolish than Hrehhhruh's active participation.The other young hunters continued their snarls, and Hrehhhruh simply ignored them and counted this day an excellent one.Perhaps, he thought, tracing the scratch the blade had made in his helm, he might even come back.The challenges here were excellent.


End file.
